35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
I recommend Ecospecialist Tours for a straightforward, reliable, and reasonably good value safari
Review of Ecospecialist Tours Uganda; www.ecotoursuganda.com
5 day safari from Kibale – Murchison Falls and Budungo - Entebbe, Uganda, July 15-19th 2016
Ecospecialists tours Uganda organised a 5 day, 4 night safari for my family of four (two children aged 9 & 15), with most of the safari based at Murchison Falls (at the Murchison River Lodge – highly recommended, particularly for families). The company gave excellent value for money – prices 2/3rds quoted by most other larger operators – and are a small local, enthusiastic company that try hard. Arrangements were all conducted efficiently and clearly by email and 50% deposit for safari in advance all done safely and efficiently via bank transfer. Robert Kungujje, one of the owners of the company, created a custom itinerary for us and was also our driver and guide. Robert was friendly, very helpful, very knowledgeable about sites and mammals, and moderately knowledgeable as bird guide (enough to satisfy an infrequent or new visitor to East Africa). Travel was in a standard, perfectly adequate, pop-top safari minibus, well and safely driven by Robert. The safari itself was excellent: Murchison Falls is excellent for mammals, scenery and particularly birds, and Robert put together a good program to encounter the best of it. I recommend Ecospecialist Tours for a straightforward, reliable, and reasonably good value Ugandan safari. Prof. Will Cresswell, St Andrews, Scotland.
NL
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Excellent Safari with a good guide with humor and broad knowledge of nature.
The Safari was well organized. Savannah Explorers listened very well what we want to see and came with all kind of suggestions. Together we made a beautiful safari. Our driver/guide Ibrahim has a great knowledge of animal live in general and he was always a happy person with a lot of humor. Savannah Explorers arranged everything really nice. It was for us a great experience.
DE
be careful - wrong itinerary
I'm so sorry, but be careful. You can't trust the company.
The itinerary was wrong (5 days Mt Kenya, 2 days Samburu NP)
and you can't trust the stuff:
I left my luggage in the office, and after the Climbing, I missed my electronical values.
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Great short safari
I set up a last-minute safari to Mikumi National Park with Gecko Adventure. They picked me up in Dar and we drove to Mikumi (about 7 hours because of all the heavy traffic leaving Dar). The accommodations at Camp Bastion were great and the game drives fantastic. My guide, Anthony, did a great job and I was amazed at all of the animals we saw - lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, impala, eland, baboons, jackals, etc. Overall, it was a fantastic trip.
AE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Disappointed and let down!
My partner and I saw the itinerary for the 11 day exclusive safari in Tanzania&Zanzibar and thought it to be exactly what we were looking for. After confirmations and having our queries answered by the tour operator Tony, we went ahead and booked.
On the day we arrived, after having met our tour guide and Tony, we are told that the agenda for the week has been changed slightly. Reluctantly, we agree since there's nothing we could do at that point. The trip goes ahead just fine and we were meant to be on safari for 5 days spending 2 nights in one lodge/camp 2 nights in another and the last night in another. We in fact ended up staying in different lodges every night of our 5 nights there and were not told that this would be happening until when we were dropped off and told to pack our things for the next morning since we would not be staying here tonight. Completely unsettled for us to have to jump from lodge to lodge every night. We didn't know where we were going to be staying the following night, it was incredibly hard for us to relax comfortably and just enjoy the trip fully.
The itinerary included a trip to a museum and a visit to a Masai village. The Museum was completely scrapped from the list and for the Masai village, we were told that we had to pay an additional $50 each!! After having confronted our guide about this, he too was not aware that we were even meant to be going to these places! It's as though they were trying their luck to see what they could get away with not paying or doing. After putting our foot down and talking to Tony, he arranged for these two visits to take place but we shouldn't have had to have that conversation in the first place.
Lastly, the next leg of our trip was 5 days in Zanzibar. Before booking, we asked Tony if the package was inclusive of all meals and alcohol, he confidently responded yes that the alcohol was also apart of the package. We get to our resort in Zanzibar only to find that in fact he misled us and alcohol was not included in our reservation and so we had to pay for this out of our own pockets.
We were very disappointed and let down by Tony and this company. All communication had seemed to be thrown about of the window, not only were we not informed about changes etc, our tour guide was also sometimes in the dark about things that was meant to be communicated to him by Tony. Nothing at all about this trip was what we expected it to be, I don't think it was worth the money we paid for it, it wasn't a luxury tour like it stated and would recommend anyone against them to avoid such disappointment.
US
Experience level: first safari
Canoe trekking experience
If you are looking for a great, easy to plan, and reasonably priced safari, Gatatu is definitely the a company for you. We only had one day to plan a trip on, so we took the canoe trekking tour on Lake Bunyoni. It was the most beautiful, enjoyable experience of my life. Fred, our tour guide, grew up in the area and was very knowledgeable about the place and its surroundings. It was a great hike, with some cool stops along the way. We traveled the lake in dug out canoes. Lunch was provided, and it was very good. An entire days trip, for a very good price. If I do a trip like this again, I'll definitely go Gatatu!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Big 5 made this the trip of my life!
My experience was wonderful and I could not have asked for more. From the begining everything was explained and itinerary shared so I knew what was happening step by step. Everything went smoothly from the flights to the guide (Nordean spelling ?) meeting us to check in at all hotels. The hotels were wonderful and food was great. I can not say enough about our guide, he was knowledgeable, kind and was definelty out to show us amazing safari. He was very patient even after 2 hours of me taking pictures of the same elephants and zebras! Being two woman alone on the Safari and twice having to go to a local shop he was with us for every step to assure not only our safety but making sure the local people were not over powering. He was such a gentleman, on the third day we wanted to go to the Maasai Village and then to the shuttle to the airport. He not only took us to the Maasai Village but told them to give us the full welcome which was amazing but when we arrived early to Arusha he dropped us for coffee and waited outside until it was time to meet the shuttle even though he was in his home town and I am sure would have loved to go home to his family. He was truly incredible and I would request him again next year if I am lucky enough to to go again. Thank You for this amazing adventure and fullfillment of my life long dream!
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Good experience
We spent a very good time in Tanzania with Lesaga Adventure Safaris. We did a 7 days tour visiting the best parks of the North. Our children lived a dream because it was like “the Lion King”! All the team was kind and receptive before the travel (with Sylvie) and during the safari (with Gasper). It was a good experience.
NZ
50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
easy process for an amazing experience
Booked on line with James, who was able to make changes after the initial booking, he organized Charles to be my driver and guide. Charles made this trip into a great experience in parting he knowledge of culture, wild life etc, I spent an amazing time seeing the great migration in the Maasai Mara, the Rhinos near Sweetwater camp, and several other parks, all hotels great, and food amazing. The Safari I would do again, and would love to have Charles as a guide and James organise it, and Sopa hotels were in great spots.
BH
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
First class communication, organization and service from 1st email of inquiry to arriving home
Having never been on a safari or to Kenya before I came across Doyan Safaris by chance over the internet. It was a last minute decision to do this trip. I found Edwards communication to be extremely efficient and he helped to tailor a safari experience based on the requirements of my trip with ease and at a great price. Edward was also very easy to work with in terms of payments and arrangements. Personally met us at the airport and gave us a lift to the hotel in Nairobi, and then again the following morning before starting the 3 day Masai Mari safari. The road trip on day one took approximately 6 hours to the camp which was located about 1KM outside of the National Park. Evening safari, full day on day 2 and early morning day 3 was enough for us personally but it was a fantastic experience. The tented accommodation was fine and as expected, don't expect luxury, but for two nights then no complaints even if the food wasn't that great.....take some snacks!. Lots of interesting people to talk to in the evenings all doing the same thing. Food wasn't great but . The safari guide who drove us for the whole three days was excellent, friendly, helpful, experienced and committed to making the safari the best it could possibly be for all of us. After the drive back to Nairobi we flew to Mombasa and had two nights and days at the Diani Sea Resort which was very good and all inclusive. Edward organised all of the internal flights, taxi pick ups and transfers and everything ran smooth, Edward was also very attentive in calling regularly to ensure everything was going well with the trip. If we were doing the same trip again then we would probably have looked to fly from Masai Mara to Diani Beach to save the time traveling. I would strongly recommend Doyen Safaris to anyone, I believe Edward could and would tailor a trip to your exact requirements, ours was last minute budget and he delivered admirably.